Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan
Dir: Kirby Dick
1997
*****
It's content is shocking but it's heart is good. Bob Flanagan's legacy is a pure one even though it wont seem so at first glance. This is an astonishing account of one man's life and his unfortunate death, or maybe one man's death and his unfortunate life as he would probably put it. I see Bob Flanagan as probably the most positive person of all time, he knew his life was going to be short and painful so he decided he'd start to try and enjoy it. People who state that the most shocking scene was the one including the nail and the penis obviously weren't concentrating properly as Bob Flanagan's death is one of the most horrific, heartbreaking, shocking but strangely reassuring and beautiful (based on his suffering) scenes ever caught on film. His poem 'Why?' is the powerful conclusion to the film that breaks the heart as well as lifts it and puts silence to anyone who thinks he was psychologically unsound or indeed sick in the head. This is a must see documentary but not for the fainthearted.